


always afternoon

by hexburn (thestormapproaches)



Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: Cute, Cute Date, Eating, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, KBBQ, Loss Angst, M/M, nem gets fed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27186523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestormapproaches/pseuds/hexburn
Summary: Tim and Nick may have been apart for so long, but now they are together again, and they will eat and snuggle and nap as much as they like.
Relationships: Nick "LS" De Cesare/Tim "Nemesis" Lipovšek
Kudos: 27





	always afternoon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scorpia_tiger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpia_tiger/gifts).



> happy birthday scorpia!  
> to the best serverwife peepoPat crownPog  
> enjoy! uwu
> 
> song title based on [Always Afternoon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYXq-nxMHMk), by Medasin ft. Kathleen  
> (very soft and sweet and relaxing song btw, i highly recommend it!)

Admittedly, the bulgogi is quite good - it’s a bit spicy, mostly sweet and meaty, but still easily the most delicious thing Tim has had the luxury of enjoying since he came out of quarantine in Korea.

The kimchi is amazing, too. It's pungent and spicy, painful in a good way as it stings a spot on his bitten lips and a sore in his mouth. Each bite releases more bright, powerful flavours that seem to wake Tim up from a deep, living sleep.

Even the lettuce is fresh and crisp and clean, watery but wonderfully crunchy. It's a blessing after being stuck with packaged and processed foods for yet another two weeks.

And yet, as Nick lays more thin slices of meat on the grill, and mouthwatering smells of the rich, flavourful, tender, fatty meats waft through the air, Tim can feel himself losing his appetite, slipping back down into that same sadness that hasn't quite let go since he dropped out of Worlds.

Another piece of meat, cooked perfectly and dabbed with sauce and placed neatly in a lettuce wrap, finds its way from Nick's plate onto Tim's own. Tim picks it up and takes a bite. Delicious, as always. With small, almost disinterested mouthfuls, he finishes off that morsel just in time for Nick to put another one in front of him.

“Nick…” Tim murmurs softly, though he takes this little bundle of fresh food with two hands and munches on it like a squirrel anyway. “You know, you should eat.” Nick has hardly taken any at all for himself, only snagging the occasional bit of meat and popping it into his mouth, then huffing and whining about how hot it is as though he hadn’t just pulled it off of the grill. But Nick doesn’t make any motions to change, simply smiling at Tim with his lips pressed cutely together and his cheeks puffed out, full of steamed egg and green onions.

Tim scoffs at the cuteness in front of him. “You look like an idiot,” he grumbles. 

Nick just giggles through his mouthful of food and keeps cooking up more pork belly, the fat glistening on the hot meat as each piece sizzles on the grill. While they rest there, Nick serves Tim another scoop of rice and tops it with a few slices of grilled garlic, then with a healthy helping of sweet radish kimchi. “Try this combo too, it’s good,” he says quickly, piling on more pieces of garlic as each slice crisps up and turns a beautiful gold colour along the edges.

Obediently, Tim scoops up a bit of rice - though it takes him a few tries with the chopsticks before he gives up and uses the fork Nick had requested for him (honestly, who even eats rice with chopsticks? How is that possible?) and is at last successful - and he nods in agreement. It is quite tasty. Still, he’s not...

With a sigh, Tim sets down his fork again and chooses to poke at his food with a singular chopstick. At least stabbing the pieces of meat is kind of fun. He skewers a few pieces and pulls them off, one by one, eating each with a relatively uninterested expression.

Nick’s chopsticks sneak over with another bundle of lettuce-wrapped brisket, dropping it off on Tim’s plate, and Tim gives Nick an unimpressed, half-bored, half-playful glare. “I’m not that hungry, you should eat some, too.”

“I will! But you have to eat it while it’s still hot and fresh, eat it!” Nick whines, pushing another bite of meat wrapped in lettuce into Tim’s hands while he takes a break from cooking to enjoy the fruits of his labour thus far.

“Nick...”

“Eat, okay? You’re already just a bundle of sticks, and didn’t you lose even more weight in your quarantine here? Just eat all of this food, honestly,” Nick jokes about the wide spread of meats and veggies, but Tim just doesn’t seem to be hungry. It tastes delicious, yes, and the meat is rich and juicy and just chewy enough to be enjoyable while also not too chewy at all, and the lettuce is crisp and fresh, and the scallion salad is ever so slightly pungent and perfectly cool, but Tim just... it’s not appealing at all.

“Sorry,” Tim mumbles.

Nick just sighs, but Tim can see him smile out of the corner of Tim’s eye, and he keeps gazing at Tim even while Tim is too embarrassed of his sadness to look Nick in the face.

“Are you still sad?” he asks quietly.

Tim shrugs, and Nick sighs sadly, sweetly, again.

And then he stands up, stepping away from his previous seat across from Tim and standing right next to Tim instead. “Scoot over,” he says, nudging Tim’s shoulder lightly. He immediately takes up what space on the seat had been freed from the move. Subtly, Tim leans in. Nick doesn’t like being demonstrative with their love in public, even though he cuddles and kisses and buys gifts so often when they’re apart or at home, and so Tim has agreed against holding hands whilst walking through town or trading chaste kisses in the nearby park - he can only imagine how horrendous the social media fallout would be, after all. Tim doesn’t mind limiting himself to light leans against Nick’s shoulder, most days. Today...

The food is great, but Tim really just wants to go home.

And then there’s a pinch to his thigh. Instinctively, Tim slaps his hand down on the discomfort, and it makes contact with something soft, yet sharp and firm and warm.

Nick’s hand.

“Hey, what are you-” Tim whispers in a rush, only to be cut off by a squeeze to his hand.

“No one will see. It’s fine,” Nick says as he laces his fingers in between Tim’s. They’ve never been this daring, never came even close to breaking through the strict boundaries they set up for themselves between their home cuddling and public presence.

Tim gives him an unimpressed glare.

“If you don’t want to, we don’t have to,” Nick says as lightly as he can. His fingers brush against Tim’s, and his thumb strokes a soothing pattern into the back of Tim’s hand, though his grip is not strong and could be dissolved in an instant. “Thought it would cheer you up a bit.” Their shoulders shrug against each other and Tim can’t help but sigh - it’s a soft touch, meaningless but loving, careful, gentle, cautious in all the right ways. It’s perfect for Tim. His heart melts a little bit under the warmth of Nick’s shoulder against his, firm and anchoring.

“Thanks,” Tim murmurs. “This is... thanks.”

He can’t quite find the words, but that’s never been a problem between them. Nick respects his silence when he needs it; Tim knows to talk when Nick needs it; together, they work out the breaks and cracks in their words and touches and shyness.

“You’re welcome,” Nick answers so softly that it’s hardly anything more than a whisper in the wind. “Hey, are you gonna eat now?” he presses on, interrupting Tim’s sappy thoughts. “Because we have a lot of meat to go through still, okay? I bought us all this food.”

“You shouldn’t have bought that much,” Tim chides with an exasperated smirk.

“Just shut up and eat.”

\---

“Thank you,” Tim says softly once the last of their food portions are cooked and eaten up, and his belly is as tight as a drum with how much food has been packed into him. It’s two small, quiet words, ineffectual in the grand scheme of things, if Tim were to think about it.

At the same time, Tim hopes those two little words get across his entire meaning. He’s not just grateful for the dinner, after all.

“You’re welcome,” Nick answers with a smile just as sweet as the candies they’d sucked on as they walked to the train. “I want kisses when we get home, though.”

“You always want kisses,” Tim teases, his eyes rolling to look up at the grey skies overhead and then down to rest on the sight of Nick’s little grin.

“And attention, don’t forget that one,” Nick adds.

Tim chuckles and nudges their shoulders together as they walk home.

\---

Once in the safety of Nick’s apartment, their coats come off, then the extra jacket Tim had worn to block out the South Korean chill, and Nick exchanges them for blankets draped over their laps and backs as they curl up on Nick’s bed, too relaxed from a big lunch and perfect company and a lazy afternoon with nothing planned to do anything but nap the rest of the day away. Tim wraps his arms around Nick’s waist and Nick layers kiss after mindless kiss to Tim’s cheeks. Within Tim’s heart, the sadness and counteracting love ebb and flow, like a river meeting the ocean, like Nick’s lips against his, like him inside of Nick, and though Nick’s love pushes away the sadness over and over again, it always seems to come back.

“You okay?” Nick quietly asks, breaking the monotone of the fan whirring away.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” But it’s a lie, and of course Nick, who knows Tim better than anyone except maybe Oskar and Tim’s parents, would notice.

“You don’t sound like it,” Nick murmurs, and Tim just sighs and leans deeper into Nick’s warm, gentle, loving, caring embrace.

“Nick... not now, okay?” He doesn’t know if he can really stand to go into it right now. This sadness, like all things, will eventually pass. Right now, Tim just needs love and cuddles and kisses to his nose and cheeks and eyelashes, the kind of kisses Nick keeps peppering over his face.

“Alright.” Nick’s voice wavers ever so slightly. Tim trembles in his embrace. But, “I’ll buy you a nice hoodie. How does that sound?” Nick adds with a little smile that Tim cannot but help lean up and press his own lips to.

Ah, but Nick, Nick, Nick... Tim hums and sighs and leans in, brushing over Nick’s foolish smile and his cute, petite, pointed nose and his thin, pretty lips. “Nick, you can’t just buy me things when I’m... y’know.”

“Actually, you could probably use an actual, warm winter coat, huh?” Nick continues, pointedly ignorant of Tim’s protests. “Your legs are nearly as thin as my arms. And if you stick around until December, you’ll freeze in stuff like that.”

“Niiiiiick.”

“We’ll go winter coat shopping tomorrow!”

“Oh, and go around a department store all day. What a thrill.” Still, for all his complaints, Tim really doesn’t mind. Time with Nick is always valuable. Less valuable in the middle of a throng of people, but valuable nonetheless.

“And we get to get more food and you can sleep on my shoulder in the train!” Nick cheers, and Tim can’t help but give in and smile.

“I guess I do have to spend my time here somehow...” In the end, Tim shrugs. It can’t be that bad. He’s shopped with Nick before, and it’s always nice to watch Nick get excited about little Pokemon plushies or cute trinkets and cuddly things. Maybe Tim should pay him back for all the generosity, too - a nice hoodie and a big plush bear can never really go wrong. Though maybe Nick would prefer a plushie lemon instead, to remind him of his boyfriend even when they’re far apart.

  
But all those big thoughts can wait. For now, Tim would like to just stay at Nick’s side, curled up with soft, pillowy plushies around them and blue-moon-bear in Nick’s arms next to Tim and Nick’s thick blankets wrapped around them and Nick’s light, sleepy breaths against his cheek and his lips and pretty face just centimetres away from Tim's own and Nick’s legs entangled in his. He is so certainly home for Tim with his brightness and kindness and gentleness, even when Tim is so painfully, emotionally raw even after three weeks’ passing.

“Why are you still awaaaaake,” Nick whines as Tim shifts to set a loving arm over his waist.

“Shut up,” Tim grumbles good-naturedly, with a sweet kiss to Nick’s squishy cheeks.

Nick snickers and snuggles closer, and, though it's not even three in the afternoon, Tim is full of delicious food and surrounded by lovely warmth and infatuated with Nick’s comforting aura and cosy under blankets while the outside world is cold and darkening. If he were a cat, Tim is certain he would be purring.

And so, like two cats in love, Tim and Nick twine their bodies even tighter together and drift off into a lazy nap.


End file.
